I've Got No Strings

"I've Got No Strings" (also known as "I Got No Strings") is a song from Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio sung by Dickie Jones as Pinocchio. He dances with several types of puppets including a Dutch puppet (and several Dutch girl puppets), a French puppet (and a few grinning cancan dancing girl puppets), a Russian puppet, and Cossacks (all voiced by Patricia Page, Mae Questel and Mel Blanc)^{[citation needed]}. The music was written by Leigh Harline, the lyrics were written by Ned Washington.^[1] The song was published in 1940.

The recording with Dickie Jones was released by Victor Records as catalog number 26479A (in United States) and by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number BD 822.

Covers and tributes[]

• In 1941, The Andrews Sisters and The Glenn Miller Orchestra performed a live recording of "I've Got No Strings" which was broadcast on .^[2]
• In 1965, Barbra Streisand recorded "I've Got No Strings" for her album My Name Is Barbra with a 1960s arrangement by Peter Matz.^[3]
• In 1967, Diana Ross and The Supremes recorded "I've Got No Strings" for a planned Disney album. The track remained unreleased until 1987, when it was included on The Never-Before-Released Masters, a compilation album of The Supremes.
• In 1991, Gipsy Kings covered "I've Got No Strings" (in flamenco style with lyrics mostly in Spanish) for the Disney video and compilation album Simply Mad About the Mouse. This cover is also included on their 1999 compilation album ¡Volaré! The Very Best of the Gipsy Kings.
• In 1995, Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Chipettes covered the song in their album, When You Wish Upon a Chipmunk. However, The Walt Disney Company neither sponsored nor endorsed the album.
• The song was used to open NSYNC's No Strings Attached concert tour as the boy band descended from the rafters onto the stage.^[4]
• In 2003, Rapper Immortal Technique sampled the song on his single "Freedom of Speech" from the Revolutionary Vol. 2 album.
• The song is covered in a commercial for Beats By Dre featuring cameos by many actors and artists such as Pharrell Williams, Amber Rose, Rebel Wilson, Nicki Minaj, and Steve Buscemi.^[5]
• In the 24th season of Dancing with the Stars, Nick Viall and his partner Peta Murgatroyd danced to this song on Disney night.
• In 2009, the song was briefly sung by Terry Crews' character Hackman in the film Gamer.

Alternative renditions[]

A slower, darker, more ominous version of the song was played in the Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser footage shown at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, and the official teaser trailer, released in October of that year. In a dark parallel of Pinocchio, the character Ultron (voiced by James Spader) compares himself to a puppet who has broken free of his controllers and quotes the entire first verse throughout the movie.^[6][7]

In Legends of Tomorrow, when the protagonists learn that their actions have been manipulated by the Time Masters, Captain Cold sacrifices himself to destroy the source of the Time Masters' power. As he rejects the idea that he is anyone's puppet, his last words are to proclaim "There are no strings on me". Earlier in his timeline, in The Flash episode "Infantino Street", Snart says "No strings on me" to Barry Allen as they part company, then repeats it softly to himself when he is alone, as though he were having a premonition.

References[]